Authoress' notes: The following story takes place
concurrently with Battle Scars.† This
story is from Jedi Knight Ta'tan'ia's point-of-view.† It is about two-and-half years after Natasi
Daala is removed from power as Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance.† I have taken a few liberties with the end of
FOTJ.† Please read and enjoy all of my stories, please leave me feedback, public or via email. ahandcuffgirl(at)yahoo(dot)com
Lieutenant Ta'tan'ia awoke nearly twenty minutes before
the alarms on her wrist chrono and comlink went off.† She had slept less than five hours, which was
about average for her these days.†
Ta'tan'ia sat up, and slipped her feet into her clear plastex slides
with fifteen centimeter heels, and strutted to her compact 'fresher.

The combined Galactic
Alliance-Confederation-Hapan-Imperial fleets were gearing up for a major
engagement with the last major Sith-Imperial-Mandalorian fleet.† Hopefully, the GACHI fleets could destroy the
SIMs, and put an end to this terrible war.

A few minutes later Ta'tan'ia came out of the fresher.† Besides her clear plastex heels, beskar wrist
chrono and comlink, she was wearing a black tank top with the Galactic Alliance
Naval Emblem over her left breast, and a pair of matching short shorts.† Her beskar collar was around her neck, and
her beskar chastity belt was underneath her short shorts.

Ta'tan'ia didn't even notice her beskar collar
anymore.† She only noticed her wrist
chrono on her left wrist, and comlink on her right wrist when she was using
them.† She had been wearing all of them
for nearly three years, and would be wearing them for the rest of her
life.† They had long since become a part
of her.

Ta'tan'ia quickly switched out her plastex heels for her
black gym shoes with fifteen centimeter wedge heels.† Then she grabbed her datapad and headphones,
and headed for the officer's gym.† As she
walked, she began tapping commands into her wrist comlink.† While she was working out, it would play the
audio version of the reports that had come in overnight through her
headphones.† The reports would also be
displayed on her datapad.

Once Ta'tan'ia arrived at the gym, she put on her
headphones, and started listening to the reports so she could brief Admiral
Daala.† There were a few other Chimaera officers already there.† Several nodded or waved at her.† Ta'tan'ia returned their greetings, and began
stretching.† None of them paid any special
attention to her collar, chrono, comlink, or chastity belt.† They had seen her in them plenty of times
before.† Ta'tan'ia did her warm up, and
began her morning workout.† All of the
machines had stands for her datapad, so she could read the reports while she
worked out.

Since she had gotten up early, Ta'tan'ia did an extra ten
minutes of aerobics before she stopped.†
Once she finished, she got her datapad, went back to her cabin, where
she took a quick sanisteam, then got dressed for duty.

Lieutenant Ta'tan'ia took a moment to check herself out
in her mirror.† She was wearing a crisp
Galactic Alliance Naval Command duty uniform.†
It was black, with Galactic Alliance Blue accents.† A matching nerfhide harness was wrapped her
head and the base of her lekku, with the GA Naval
Emblem on the front.† Glossy black knee
boots with chunky ten centimeter heels were on her feet.† The heels were one of the few non-regulation
items that Admiral Daala allowed her to wear.

Underneath her uniform Ta'tan'ia was wearing an armored
black bodysuit.† Under that she was
wearing another non-regulation item Admiral Daala allowed her to wear; her
beskar chastity belt.† Ta'tan'ia's
collar, chrono, and comlink were partially visible under the collar and sleeves
of her uniform tunic.

A standard-issue GA Naval blaster pistol was in the
holster on her left hip.† Her lightsaberóthe
final non-regulation item Admiral Daala allowed herówas horizontal across the
back of her belt.

Unlike most of the other Jedi  who were still
alive  Ta'tan'ia hadn't fought any Sith directly.† In the opening weeks of the war Admiral
Bwua'tu and Grand Master Skywalker had decided that all senior flag officers
should have a Jedi bodyguard.† Admiral
Daala had requested Ta'tan'ia, and she had accepted.† She had been at her side ever since, and
hadn't fought any Sith.† Considering the
number of Jedi that hadn't survived duels with Sith or the war in general,
Ta'tan'ia might have considered herself lucky.

While Ta'tan'ia was ready to fight a Sith, she wasn't
eager.† It wasn't because she was afraid
though, it was simply because her duty was to protect and assist Admiral
Daala.† If a Sith got close enough to her
for Ta'tan'ia to fight them, then things had already gone very wrong.

Several months ago, Admiral Daala had given Ta'tan'ia a
field promotion to Ensign.† Last month
she had been promoted again, to Lieutenant.†
Ta'tan'ia took one last look at herself, then marched out of her cabin,
picking up her datapad on the way.† She
often worked longer hours as Admiral Daala's aide than she had as her Jedi
liaison.† It didn't bother Ta'tan'ia one
bit; the Sith had to be defeated.

Four minutes later, Ta'tan'ia was standing just outside
the hatchway to Admiral Daala's quarters, with her datapad in one hand, and a
hot cup of caf in the other.† Ta'tan'ia's
own cabin was just across the corridor, but she had had to go prepare the
Admiral's caf.† The datapad had the
summary of the reports that had come in overnight from the fleet.† Ta'tan'ia had already reviewed the reports
while she had gotten in her morning exercise.

While she was waiting, she scanned them again.† Less than a minute later, the hatchway door
opened and Admiral Daala's YVH bodyguard droid, emerged, followed by the
Admiral herself.

"Good morning, Admiral Daala," Ta'tan'ia said cheerfully
as she presented her the datapad and caf.

"Good morning, Lieutenant," Admiral Daala replied as she
took first the datapad, then the caf.†
She immediately headed towards the bridge, with Ta'tan'ia following a
step behind her, and to her left.†
Bee-Dee, the YVH droid, was a meter or so in front of them.

"What's new?" Admiral Daala asked after she had taken a
swallow of her caf.† She was reading the
datapad as they walked.

"An Eta-5 on board the Twilight Hornet accidently fired a pair of concussion missiles
while it was in the hanger, killing four crewmembers and injuring seven, two critically,"
Ta'tan'ia informed her of the most important incident that had happened
overnight.† "There was also a power
overload on the Dantooine
that killed a crewmember, and injured another."

Admiral Daala muttered a curse under her breath.† "Does General Solo know about the missile
launch?"

"All ships report no enemy contacts from any of our
probes, Admiral," he updated her.

"Good," Admiral Daala responded with a nod.

Ta'tan'ia and Admiral Daala spent the next several
minutes on the bridge discussing their status with Captain Turrls.† When his second officer arrived for her
shift, Admiral Daala and Ta'tan'ia moved to the Admiral's fleet command center,
which was just aft of the bridge.

Several other members of Admiral Daala's staff were
already in the command center.† They
greeted Admiral Daala upon her arrival.†
She ordered them to carry on, and the group immediately went to work
planning their part of the upcoming battle.†
A few minutes later, Captain Turrls joined them. †A couple of hours later, General Solo did as
well.

The group ate lunch in the command center.† Several hours later, Admiral Daala decided
they had done enough for today.† Several
members of her staff headed for the officer's mess, while Admiral Daala and Ta'tan'ia
went on an impromptu inspection tour of the ship, like they often did.

Several
days later ...

Today was the day.†
The GACHI fleet was in place, ready to destroy the last major SIM
fleet.† Ta'tan'ia had been up since
oh-four-hundred assisting Admiral Daala in getting her fleet ready.† Admiral Daala hadn't been up quite that long,
but that didn't bother Ta'tan'ia.† Not
only was Admiral Daala several decades older than she was, she didn't have the
Force to keep her energized.† Ta'tan'ia
also knew that the Admiral had a lot more responsibility on her than she did.† If she needed to catch a couple of extra
hours of sleep, that was just fine by her.

Currently Ta'tan'ia was in the Admiral's command center,
along with Admiral Daala and most of the rest of her staff.† Ta'tan'ia was compiling a final status report
from every ship in the Second Fleet, which was Admiral Daala's fleet.† Admiral Daala had just received a holocom
call from General Solo.

"Excellent, General," Admiral Daala said to Jaina Solo's
hologram.† "Admirals Bwua'tu,
Darklighter, and Makin's, General Phennir's,
Queen Mother Tenel Ka, and Moffs
Garreter and Sarreti's
fleets are ready as well.† Master Durron and the Jedi are also prepared to strike.† We will follow Moff Garreter's fleet, as we've
planned."

"Yes Ma'am," General Solo replied.

Before Admiral Daala could say anything else, Ta'tan'ia
stepped into the holoemmitter field, and handed her a datapad with a final
status report from her fleet.† While
Admiral Daala was scanning it, Ta'tan'ia glanced towards Jaina, and gave her a
professional nod, while smiling cheerfully.†
General Solo nodded back, and flashed a slight smile.† Her black body suit had a high, stiff collar.† Ta'tan'ia knew General Solo wore it because
she liked wearing collars, probably just as much as she did.† She could also spot her durasteel wrist
comlink under the hem of her right sleeve.†
Ta'tan'ia knew she had a matching chrono on her left wrist as well.

After a few moments, Admiral Daala handed the datapad
back to Ta'tan'ia, and gave her a nod of approval.† Ta'tan'ia obediently stepped out of the
holoemmitter field, and returned to her duties.†
The attack was set to launch in  she paused to glance at her wrist
chrono  twenty-eight minutes.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Ta'tan'ia felt the ship shudder from a direct turbolaser hit.† She
glanced at her ship's readout, and didn't see any damage worth mentioning to
Admiral Daala.† Captain Turrls, who was
on the bridge, could handle the Chimaera's
defenses.† Admiral Daala had seven ships
in serious trouble at the moment, and another ten getting closer than they
needed to be.† Suddenly two of the later
winked out of existence.† Frakk!

"Admiral Daala, we've lost the Crimson Wave and the Srivver!" Ta'tan'ia announced loud enough to be heard, but
not quite shouting.

Admiral Daala looked between those two sections of the
holodisplay board.† The enemy ships near
them didn't appear to be powerful enough to destroy them so fast.† "What the frakk
happened!?" she asked.† "Shadow bombs?"

While Ta'tan'ia couldn't be a hundred percent sure, that
definitely seemed like the most likely explanation.† There were a lot of Sith piloting
starfighters with shadow bombs out there.†
"Yes Ma'am," Ta'tan'ia answered with a nod.† "And the Bonn
Vikerty is critical."

"Kriffing Garreter," Admiral Daala muttered under her
breath as she began moving ships in the holodisplay to assist the Vikerty.†
"Lieutenant Ta'tan'ia, contact General Solo and ask her to do something
about those shadow bombs," she ordered her.

"Yes Ma'am," Ta'tan'ia replied obediently.

Before Ta'tan'ia could obey, Admiral Daala glanced at her
comm display.†
"Never mind, that's her," she commented as she activated the comm.

A few moments later, Admiral Daala turned off the
comm.† "General Solo is going to
personally see to the matter," she informed her staff.

While Ta'tan'ia knew that General Solo was one of the top
starfighter pilots in the galaxy, she was also a much better strategist than
Colonel Barro, her second in command.† Ta'tan'ia hoped her skills in the cockpit
would make up for her being out of the flight ops center.

The Second Fleet was able to survive without General Solo
coordinating its starfighter operations.†
Under Admiral Daala's leadership, the Second Fleet systematically blasted
the surrounding SIM ships to pieces.† It
certainly helped that the GACHI fleet outnumbered the SIM fleet nearly
three-to-one.† Even after the pounding
Moff Garreter's fleet took, the Galactic Alliance Second Fleet had a lot more
ships in the area than the SIMs.

As Ta'tan'ia watched the holodisplay board, a Second
Fleet Mon Calamari Star Cruiser and two Republic-class
cruisers worked together to blast the entire command tower off a SIM Star
Destroyer.† At the same time, the Chimaera and one of her escorts  an old
Mon Calamari MC90 Star Cruiser  were finishing off a SIM affiliated Bothan
Assault Cruiser.

The rest of the battle was going almost as good  for the
most part.† Other than a few isolated
pockets, the GACHI fleet was dominating the SIMs, who were beginning to try to
separate themselves from the battle.

Less than thirty minutes later, the Second Fleet received
orders from Admiral Bwua'tu to pursue the retreating SIM fleet.† Admiral Daala immediately began issuing
orders to her fleet to form up and jump.†
Ta'tan'ia ensured that the order was issued to all Second Fleet ships,
and routed to the starfighters.† A minute
or so later, the Chimaera and a
half-dozen other GACHI ships entered hyperspace, accompanied by about three
squadrons of friendly starfighters.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

When the Chimaera
exited hyperspace, they found a handful of GACHI ships engaging about a dozen
SIM ships.† The GACHI ships were part of
the secondary ambush fleets that Admiral Bwua'tu had deployed in the SIMs'
likely paths of retreat.† Since the GACHI
ships hadn't been in the main battle, they were fresh, and had their full
compliments of starfighters.†

They were in an uninhabited system designated Wolf
Three-Five-Nine by an Imperial survey decades ago.† It had a medium sized orange sun, and six
planets, none of which had anything worth exploiting, other than cover for an
ambush.

Admiral Daala immediately ordered her ships to engage the
enemy.† The order was somewhat unnecessary;
the ships' captains were already heading into the fight.† Ta'tan'ia had expected nothing less.

As they closed with the SIM fleet, Ta'tan'ia reached out
with the Force to sense if any Sith; or other Jedi were nearby.† She felt five or six Sith, and seven friendly
Jedi.† She reassured her fellow Jedi
through the Force.†

Over the next couple of minutes about ten more SIM ships
arrived in-system  along with a few Sith  immediately followed by several more
GACHI ships  and General Solo.† Since
Admiral Daala was the highest ranking GACHI officer, she took command of the
battle.

Suddenly Ta'tan'ia sensed danger from a pair of
Sith.† She quickly found a pair of
X-wings heading straight for the Chimaera.

Ta'tan'ia immediately ordered the starboard side guns to
target the X-wings.† If the Sith were piloting
them, then they would have shadow bombs.

A couple of moments later Ta'tan'ia felt imminent danger
through the Force.† She shouted a warning
to everyone, and grabbed the edge of her display panel.† A moment later the Chimaera bucked as a pair of shadow bombs exploded against the
shields.† Ta'tan'ia held her breath as
she waited for the other pair to hit against the weakened shields, and do even
more damage.† Several seconds later she
let out a sigh of relief.† She could
sense the immediate danger was passed.

Ta'tan'ia turned her attention back to the holodisplay
board, and the Sith X-wings.† She knew
they would try to attack again.†

General Solo and Rogue Leader  Syal
Antilles  quickly locked onto the Sith starfighters.† The four pilots made an extremely dangerous
head-to-head pass, and somehow all survived.†
Ta'tan'ia glanced at the display and saw that the second Sith X-wing was
badly damaged though.† As the four snub
fighter pilots turned to engage each other again, Rouge Nine  Jysella Horn  swept in and destroyed the trailing Sith.

The remaining Sith X-wing immediately broke off its
attack on the Chimaera.† Ta'tan'ia turned her attention to a
Mandalorian Cruiser that was the closest enemy ship.† The Chimaera
and two of her escorts were more than handling the Mando
Cruiser.† It didn't take them long to
destroy it.

With General Jaina Solo leading the starfighter attack, and
Admiral Daala commanding the capital ship fleet, the GACHI's systemically
decimated the SIM fleet.† Only a few SIM
capital ships manage to escape the destruction.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

We
did it!
Ta'tan'ia thought to herself with satisfaction.† The last major SIM fleet was gone.† There was a feeling of exultation from the Chimaera, and the rest of the GACHI
fleet nearby.† Most of the Sith in-system
had been killed in battle, although a few had escaped.† All of the SIM ships were either destroyed or
had surrendered.† By the reports coming
in from the rest of the GACHI fleet, the entire battle was a huge victory ... † A decisive victory.† The Sith and their allies had finally been
defeated.

The
following night, on board the Chimaera II ...

Ta'tan'ia was in Admiral Daala's quarters, going over
damage reports and repair assessments for her fleet.† They were still technically on alert, but
there was no enemy contact on the fleet's sensors, or from the probes they had
deployed.† General Solo still had six
squadrons of starfighters from the fleet spread out on patrol, and six more on
standby for immediate take off.

Admiral Daala was still wearing her uniform boots, pants,
and armored body suit, as well as her belt.†
Her blaster was still in her holster on her hip.† Ta'tan'ia was wearing her ten centimeter
chunky heeled boots, uniform pants, and armored body suit.† She was also still wearing her beskar
chastity belt, as well as her collar, chrono, and comlink.† Her belt with her blaster and lightsaber was
around her waist.† Her uniform tunic was next
to her, hanging over the back of the pouf couch.† Bee-Dee, Admiral Daala's YVH bodyguard droid,
was in the corner to the right of the hatchway.

Neither Ta'tan'ia or Admiral Daala had slept since before
the battle.† They had only left the
command center a little over an hour ago.†
Both of them were sitting on the pouf couch against the opposite
bulkhead, facing the hatchway. †An array
of data cards and a portable computer terminal were on the caf table in front
of them.†

Admiral Daala's fleet was down to nearly two-thirds
strength for the immediate future.†
Another ten percent was damaged enough to be unable to continue hunting
for the SIMs.† They were on rear security
and recovery operations at the original battle site, and elsewhere until there
was room at a shipyard for them.

Suddenly Ta'tan'ia felt an imminent danger through the Force.† As her hand reached her lightsaber, the
hatchway burst open, and a pair of Sith leapt in, red lightsabers blazing.

The one on Ta'tan'ia's right was a male Keshiri.† The other one was a raven-haired human woman.

Ta'tan'ia pulled her lightsaber off her belt, and ignited
it as she jumped to her feet and brought it to a guard position.† Almost as soon as she did, Bee-Dee opened
fire from the Sith's right.† Admiral
Daala dropped to one knee as she reached for her own blaster on her hip.

The human Sith turned to block the blaster bolts from
Bee-Dee.† The Keshiri Sith sneered, and
let loose a volley of Force lightening.

Ta'tan'ia realized a split-second too late that the
lightning wasn't aimed at her  it was aimed at Admiral Daala.† The bolt hit her in her chest and slammed her
into the front of the pouf couch.†
Ta'tan'ia instantly leapt in front of her, and caught the bolt on her
lightsaber.† Admiral Daala fell to the
floor behind her, practically under her heels.

Ta'tan'ia could feel her skin tingling from the
electricity.† She held her position for a
couple of heartbeats, then kicked the caf table up, and at the Sith.† It got high enough to block the lightening.† Ta'tan'ia leapt up behind the table towards
the Sith, her right leg flexed for a kick, and her lightsaber ready to block or
strike.

As she flew through the air, the Keshiri stopped the
lightening, and Force-shoved the metal caf table back towards Ta'tan'ia.† She slowed it with her outstretched foot, and
at the same time, sliced it in half.

The table served to stop her momentum though.† Ta'tan'ia dropped to floor, landing on one
knee less than a meter in front of the Sith.†
She kept her lightsaber up, and blocked his blade just a decimeter from
her face.

The Sith followed up with a boot to her stomach, which
helped her to her feet, and back half a step.†
Ta'tan'ia immediately had to block a flurry of strikes and slashes at
her mid-section as she backpedaled.† She
made sure to keep herself between her opponent and Admiral Daala.† In her peripheral vision she could see the
other Sith still fighting Bee-Dee.

Finally the Sith pulled his blade back a bit too far for
his next strike.† Ta'tan'ia drove her
left foot into his right thigh, pushing him back and to one knee.† He countered by swiping at her ankles with
his lightsaber.† Ta'tan'ia jumped clear
and swung her own lightsaber at the Sith's neck.†

The Keshiri did a half-roll-half-flip backwards out of
the way.† As he came up, he swung his
lightsaber in an upward vertical arc, trying to cut her in half.† Ta'tan'ia leaned back in the nick of time,
the tip of the blade missing her upper body by mere centimeters.† She actually felt it hit her beskar chastity
belt.† As he brought his lightsaber down
for another strike, Ta'tan'ia leaned to her left and slashed upwards with hers.

Her blade struck first.†
Ta'tan'ia sliced off his entire right arm, including part of his
shoulder, and a sliver of his scalp.† The
Sith was still grasping his lightsaber in his left hand.† Ta'tan'ia easily knocked it aside, then spun
her lightsaber around vertically, and drove the tip straight down behind his
collar bone, into his body, almost to the hilt.

Ta'tan'ia stared into his eyes as he dropped to his
knees.† A heartbeat later, she pulled her
purple blade out through his chest, and let his body fall to the deck.

As his lifeless body fell, Ta'tan'ia glanced at Admiral
Daala.† She was alive, and
semi-conscious.† There was no way
Ta'tan'ia could get her to safety with the other Sith in the room.† All of this flashed through Ta'tan'ia's mind
in less than a second.† She took a step
towards the Sith, and leapt to attack.

The human Sith used the Force to push Bee-Dee into her as
she landed.† Ta'tan'ia slammed into the
droid, and the Sith used her momentary distraction to stab at her head.† As Ta'tan'ia twisted away, the tip of the red
blade pierced her right eye a few centimeters.

Ta'tan'ia gasped in pain as she fell to the deck, clutching
her eye socket.† Her lightsaber rolled
out of her hand, and came to a stop against the bulkhead.†

Ta'tan'ia lay on the deck, only the agony in her eye
socket keeping her conscious.† She was
vaguely aware of the Sith fighting with Bee-Dee above her.† After several long, torturous seconds, she
raised her head, and reached out for her lightsaber with the Force. †She couldn't see anything out of her right
eye.

As her lightsaber reached her hand, the upper half of
Bee-Dee's chest up to his head hit the deck next to her.† Ta'tan'ia rolled over and brought her
lightsaber to her side to block the Sith's strike.† Ta'tan'ia immediately tried to kick her legs
out from under her, but the human jumped clear.†
As she landed, she stomped Ta'tan'ia's wrist with all of her strength.

Fortunately for Ta'tan'ia, the Sith's right boot landed
directly on her beskar comlink.† She grunted
in pain as her ankle rolled off it.† A
split second later the Sith swung her lightsaber for Ta'tan'ia's head.

Ta'tan'ia managed to block the strike as she rolled away,
and rose to a crouch.† Ta'tan'ia stabbed
at her as she jumped back and to her feet.†
She did her best to ignore the fiery pain in her right eye.† The human Sith closed the distance, and
attacked again.

The Sith let loose a flurry of short, sharp strikes.† Ta'tan'ia quickly realized she was a far
superior fighter than the Keshiri.† Her
strikes were faster, harder, and tightly controlled.† It certainly didn't help that she couldn't
see out of her right eye.† Ta'tan'ia
continued to backpedal as she struggled to block her opponent's red-bladed
lightsaber.† The human did seem to be
favoring her right ankle a bit.†
Ta'tan'ia wasn't sure what she could do about it though, she was busy
trying to survive the next few seconds.

Suddenly the Sith grunted as a blaster bolt hit her in
the stomach.

Admiral
Daala!

Ta'tan'ia took advantage and made her own attack.† As she took a half-step forward, Admiral
Daala fired again.

This time the Sith deflected the blaster bolt  directly
into Ta'tan'ia's chest.† In spite of her
armored bodysuit, it felt like she had been hit with a sonic hammer.† Ta'tan'ia gasped as the air rushed out of her
lungs.

In a split-second the Sith spun her lightsaber in a
circle, and Ta'tan'ia felt white-hot pain at her wrist.† She looked down in shock to see her right
hand falling to the deck.† Her comlink
was still on what was left of her wrist.†
Somehow she was still holding her own lightsaber in her left hand.† Before she could do anything with it, another
blaster bolt hit the Sith in her hip.†
She grunted and tried to block the next bolt.

Ta'tan'ia flicked her lightsaber and sliced off her opponent's
right arm just below the elbow.† As her
blade continued on its path, the tip cut through her midsection as well.

The Sith screamed in fury as she brought her left hand
up, and released a bolt of Force lightening into both Ta'tan'ia and Admiral
Daala.

Ta'tan'ia flew into the wall with an oomph, and fell onto the pouf couch.† Her muscles spasmed
as the Sith intensified the discharge.† She saw Admiral Daala writhing in pain a
meter or so away.

After several long seconds  which seemed like an eternity
to Ta'tan'ia  the Sith stopped the Force lightening, and took several slow, deep
breaths.† She was obviously
exhausted.† Ta'tan'ia wasn't in any
condition to do anything about it at the moment.

The Sith took another deep breath, then slowly squatted
down, and reached for her lightsaber on the deck at her feet.

As she was pulling it out of her own amputated hand,
Ta'tan'ia reached out with the Force, and ignited the lightsaber.† She was rewarded with a scream of pain as the
blade went through the Sith's left shin.†
The human fell back onto the deck, clutching her leg with her left hand.

Ta'tan'ia summoned the Force, and sat halfway up.† She picked her lightsaber up, and lunged at
the Sith.† The human grabbed her own
lightsaber and tried to block, but was a heartbeat too late.

The point of Ta'tan'ia's blade drove through her knee,
then her chest.† She landed halfway on
top of her, then rolled off as she dragged her lightsaber out through her
ribcage.

Ta'tan'ia laid on the deck for several seconds, then passed
out.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The
following afternoon ...

Ta'tan'ia awoke in the Chimaera's medical bay.† The
first thing she realized was that she could only see out of her left eye.† She felt a bacta
bandage wrapped around her head, and another one on her right arm.† Then she heard a familiar voice nearby.† She turned her head to her right, and found Admiral
Daala on the bunk next to her, talking to General
Solo, who was sitting in a hover chair next to her bunk.† A holodisplay with
the fleet's status was in front of them.

"Admiral Daala," Ta'tan'ia said in alarm, trying to sit
up.

"I'm fine," Admiral Daala replied weakly.† "Lieutenant."

"I'm sorry, Admiral," she apologized.

"For what?" she replied with a forced smile.† "Killing two Sith assassins?"

Suddenly a nurse was at Ta'tan'ia's side, ordering her to
lie down, and relax.

"For letting them get to you, Ma'am," Ta'tan'ia told her
as she obeyed the nurse.† "I was supposed
to be protecting you."

Admiral Daala gave her another weak smile.† "And you did, Lieutenant.† I'm alive, and hopefully will be out of here
soon."

Ta'tan'ia still wasn't convinced.† "I shouldn't have let them even touch you,
Ma'am."

"Six Sith infiltrated the ship," General Solo
interjected.† "You defeated a Lord and a
Saber, and kept Admiral Daala alive while in an enclosed room.† I'd say you did pretty good."

"Six Sith!?" Ta'tan'ia responded in surprise.† Then she realized she had only killed two.† "What happened to the other four?"

Ta'tan'ia felt a sense of satisfaction from General
Solo.† She glanced over and saw her
eyebrow above her eye-patch raised, and a smug grin on her face.

"General Solo happened to them," Admiral Daala stated
with her own smile.

"Are you okay, General?" Ta'tan'ia
asked in concern, aware that she was in a hover chair.

"I'm fine," Jaina replied with
a dismissive wave.† "The doctors are just
being overly cautious."

Ta'tan'ia
let
out a sigh of relief.† She was glad
General Solo wasn't seriously hurt.† For
one, Ta'tan'ia considered a close friend.† Secondly, she was a very popular General  and
Jedi Master  and it would be bad for fleet morale if she was on the sidelines.

"The SIMs tried to assassinate practically every major
GACHI leader," Jaina explained seriously.†
"Admiral Bwua'tu is in a bacta tank. †General Phennir,
Admiral Makin, and Moff Sarreti
were killed.† Masters Kam
Solusar, Ramis, and
Barratk'l, as well as sixteen other Jedi died as well.† We managed to kill nearly seventy Sith
though."

Ta'tan'ia laid there in stunned silence.† She couldn't believe Masters
Solusar and Ramis were dead.† Then she glanced down at her right arm,
wrapped in bandages where her hand used to be.

"Your prosthetic will be ready in a few hours," General
Solo informed her.† "Your hand will be as
good as new in a couple of days."

"The doctors aren't sure about your eye though," Admiral
Daala explained.† "There is a lot of
damage, and prosthetic eyes are in very short supply in the fleet."

Ta'tan'ia glanced over to
her beskar chrono on her left wrist.† "I
want my comlink put back on before they attach the prosthetic hand," she told
them.† "And don't worry about my
eye.† If a patch is good enough for my
Commanding Officers, then a patch is good enough for me."

"Are you sure about the
patch?" General Solo asked from her hover chair.

Ta'tan'ia
noticed that she didn't ask about the comlink.† Ta'tan'ia could also
sense Admiral Daala's approval of her decision, as
well as General Solo's.† That wasn't why
she wanted her comlink back on though.†
Her six-centimeter-wide beskar comlink was as much of a part of her as
her hand.† She couldn't imagine life
without it.† Besides, it made it easier
for her to be cuffed.† As for her eye, if
Admiral Daala and General Solo could live with one eye, then she could too.

"Yes Ma'am," Ta'tan'ia answered
with a firm nod.† "That's where it
belongs."

"Good.† I was already going to put your
comlink back on you anyway," Admiral Daala
announced.† "My Mad Mynocks
game is on it."

Ta'tan'ia
wasn't quite sure how to respond to that.†
She glanced at General Solo, who flashed her a small grin.† Ta'tan'ia smiled
back at her, then dropped her head onto the pillow, and stared up at the
ceiling.

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